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The Rise Of The Millennial, And Why They're Changing Work For The Better

Co-Founder and CEO at Evercoach. I am an angel investor, entrepreneur, speaker, coach, author and an advocate for a greater life for you.

"They’re rude. Impatient. Selfish."

This is what many generations will tell you if you ask them about the “younger” generation: millennials.

I would argue, however, that millennials simply want more for themselves, and what's more is that they’re not afraid to ask for what they want.

Who Are The Millennials?

As the first group to hit adulthood after the year 2000, millennials are the first generation to join the workforce in the new millennium. According to Pew Research Center, millennials include anyone born between the year 1981 and 1996, which puts them in the 22-37 age range.

But the description many people relate to is slightly different. They’re the ones who look like they’re spending all their time taking “selfies,” glued to their phones and sharing pictures of the sandwich they had for lunch on social media.

They’re the generation no one understands — or maybe they're the generation no one wants to understand.

They're driven by passion.

What most people don’t realize is that millennials are not the good-for-nothing, lazy troublemakers their elders say they are.

I’m a millennial myself, and I can tell you that I’ve worked hard for everything I have. I’ve also worked with fellow millennials all my life, and I happen to think they’re just as driven — maybe even the greatest workforce the world has ever seen.

For one thing, millennials have a very important trait that many 20th century workers lack. It’s a quality that’s closely related to personal happiness, and it affects overall work output and productivity. I’m talking about passion.

More than any other goal, millennials are dedicated to living a full life, and they're not afraid to let their passion guide their decisions. They refuse to accept anything other than what they believe is a good fit for who they are and what they want to do with their time and talent. And they take this attitude into the heart of the workplace.

If you try to get a millennial to work on something they’re not passionate about, something they don’t believe in, or something that doesn’t challenge or inspire them, you’ll face a massive wall of resistance. And you can’t “buy” their loyalty either.

They prioritize meaning over money.

Strategic intelligence firm, Department 26, surveyed 1,000 millennials in three American cities about their relationship with work. The results showed that millennials value making an impact on the world more than just providing for their families, which was the number one goal for earlier generations. And for the first time in over 100 years, young people are prioritizing passion over money and other benefits when it comes to work.

Don’t get me wrong: Millennials want to be wealthy. They want to have more than enough money to support the life they choose to live. But they’re not willing to do anything to get there. Money needs to flow from meaning.

Millennials need to feel like their work is more than just a paycheck. They want their work to be purposeful. Older generations were all about getting the job done and getting paid for it. But the millennial generation is all about getting the right job done and getting paid for it.

This is fantastic news for employers because you can’t get a millennial to stop working on something that matters to them. They’re happy to keep going – working longer and harder than anyone else — when they believe that their job contributes to a greater purpose or the project they’re working on lets them serve the world in a positive way.

They embrace diversity.

If you’re still on the fence about millennials, here’s something that might turn you into a believer: Millennials work incredibly well with just about anyone.

They have no interest in your family name or whether you went to an Ivy League school. They don’t care if you grew up on the “wrong” side of the tracks. Millennials value creativity and community over exclusivity and status. They’re all about working as a team to create the best possible results, and they’re happy to work with anyone who can get the job done.

Their attitude isn’t so surprising if you think about it.

They entered the workforce when long-term, full-time, hierarchical jobs began to take a back seat to short-term, project-based, freelance gigs. They started their first job when technology made it possible for anyone to access a global workforce at the click of a button. Even micro-business owners with small projects can easily connect with and hire people from all around the world — people from wildly different ethnic backgrounds and belief systems.

These major changes hit the world at the start of the 21st century, creating an extraordinary side effect no one saw coming: an adaptable, innovative, community-based millennial workforce that is 100% comfortable with diversity of all kinds.

What It All Means

Millennials get the short end of the stick because they’re vastly different from previous generations. But before we judge them, let’s remember this isn’t a new phenomenon.

In the 1950s and into the 60s, older generations thought rock 'n' roll was a disgrace. There was a time when people believed women who wore trousers should be punished. In 1938 Los Angeles, a woman went to jail for wearing slacks to court because the judge thought her outfit distracted everyone from the legal proceedings taking place.

These are true stories.

We might dismiss these ideas and attitudes as outdated, ridiculous and discriminative, but don’t forget: Nothing would ever change if each generation made the same choices as the generation before them. Progress and transformation happen when we bravely adopt new ways of thinking, living and working.